Monday, March 24, 2014

China Glaze Lotus Begin

Soooooooooooo remember that time I said I was bored with Spring 2014 collections and then ended up with 8 China Glazes from the City Flourish collection? Yeah, that happened, all thanks to the China Glaze BOGO at Sally's this month. Whoops. But Madeline and I have a fever and the only cure is ALL THE NEON PASTELS, which City Flourish provided, and then some. Lotus Begin is one of two polishes I knew I absolutely needed, because HELLO, PURPLE. <3333

This polish has some serious cool tones, so I'm pretty confident in saying that it'll look amazing on everybody. However, as a neon pastel, it definitely is NOT easy to photograph. All the Google images I've seen so far are so different from each other! What you'll see below is what Lotus Begin looks like on me in natural light; none of the pics have been doctored. I really love it.

Three coats with SV.

I cannot think of a way to accurately describe this color except DROOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOL.

And now for the part a lot of you have been waiting for: the dish on the formula. Some people found it horrendous. Personally, I didn't have any problems with it. Here's what I'm going to say: If you have tried any of the neon pastels from last summer's China Glaze Sunsational creme set, then that's EXACTLY what you're going to get with the City Flourish neon pastels. I'll also add that you kind of have to work quickly and carefully, as the neon pigment dries quickly and it dries semi-matte, so any imperfections will tend to make themselves apparent. You will need a top coat for shininess; I used SV because of its self-leveling powers but I had to apply it with the quickness! I wore this for four glorious days with minimal tip wear and one chip on the usual corner (left corner) of the usual chip-prone finger (right index).

The City Flourish collection has been out since last month, but Sally's has that BOGO going -- if you also have our neon pastel fever and you're lucky enough to find a store without a picked over City Flourish display, GET THIS POLISH. Or use your points at Ulta. Or buy it at a beauty supply online. Up to you. But if you're gonna get one polish from City Flourish, I really think Lotus Begin is THE one to get.

Obviously, I loved this polish. I think I'm going to try Peonies & Park Ave. next ... that one is going to be even worse to photograph. I'm already dreading it. :/ But let me know if there's a City Flourish you'd like to see eventually -- if I have it, I'll probably blog it in May. (April will be a mostly Zoya affair, I think.)

Further questions? Opinions? Concerns? Anyone else enjoy neon pastels as much as Madeline and I do? Or did you find City Flourish too boring for you?

This has nothing to do with nail polish, but I wanted to say that I finally popped my drive-in movie theater cherry over the weekend! :D

I'm really not sure why I took this. I think I was going to tweet it until I remembered I was in the middle of nowhere and my signal was not going to be able to handle it.

But most likely, I think I was just REALLY EXCITED.

B and I have been attempting to go for two years and never made it there for some reason or other. Last weekend was the opening weekend of the Goochland Drive-In's 2014 season, and the weirdness of the double feature pairing was too enticing for us. We enjoyed "Mr. Peabody & Sherman" but we could not stop saying, "Well, we know what Paul Verhoeven would have done with this" to each other during "Robocop" (the new one, obvs). Sure, this remake had a couple of things going for it and we liked the homages to the original recipe, but all in all, I think we'll stick to the original. I think my favorite thing about drive-ins -- so far -- is that B and I can do our popcorn gallery commentary thing without having to whisper, since we sat in his car and closed the windows. Anyway, if you're in the Richmond area, you should go. They take credit cards, and dogs are welcome! (And most of them are better-behaved than the kids we saw last weekend.) I can't wait to go back. :-)

Thanks for reading! I have two more posts ready to go for this week, but I'm not entirely sure when they're going up. Depending on what my timetable is like today and tomorrow, the next one will post either tomorrow or on Wednesday. I guess you'll just have to come back and find out. ;)

Thank you for checking out my little nail blog! I do read and appreciate your comments and/or feedback, although it might take me a few days to get back to you. Time-sensitive inquiries should be directed to my e-mail address (rachswatched@gmail).

Please be polite and respectful when responding to others' comments in a post; if you are rude, I will delete your comment and Hannibal Lecter will eat you. Please don't leave spam comments with blog links -- it's tacky and I don't do it. Neither should you.

let's talk STUFF!

STUFF about me ...

A nail diary powered by Droid pictures, commentary, and LOTS of pop culture since July 2011.

I get really excited about random things and I want you to get excited, too! I talk too much, am a compulsive three-coater and one of the most atypical, ridiculous Virgos you will ever meet. Sterling Meowlory isn't my cat.